[News] 10-year-old Installs Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Linux on the desktop, your time has come.
,----[ Quote ]
| My son who is 10 was jumping at the bit to upgrade his computer, a trusty old
| Inspiron 5100. So I decided to let him install without any help from good ol’
| dad. Not only did he install it no problems at all, the one glitch he did
| have was handle with out a hitch as well. To use our wireless network he has
| an old linksys usb wireless adapter which had never been supported by Ubuntu
| and to the displeasure of by son 8.04 is no exception. In a move that made
| this dad as proud as if he ran in the winning touchdown in the championship
| game, he pulled out the windows driver disk and installed Ndiswrapper and got
| his beloved computer on the network.
`----
http://dthomasdigital.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/linux-on-thew-desktop-your-time-has-come/
It's not the fault of Linux that the manufacturer offers no Linux drivers. In
the future, a card can be bought from Linux-friendly companies so that it
works out of the box.
Working with Wireless in Linux
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| That's the power of the Linux community – and Ubuntu sure is a leader on
| community-driven support. The Ubuntu Forum is a prime example that Linux
| users aren't grumpy gits that only say ’RTFM’, although sometimes reading the
| manual is all it takes to solve a problem. If not, we welcome you to post
| your questions here in the bit-tech community, and we'll see if we can help!
`----
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2008/04/25/working-with-wireless-in-linux/1
Recent:
Linux Driver Project Status Report as of April 2008
,----[ Quote ]
| The Linux Driver Project (LDP) is alive and well, with over 300 developers
| wanting to participate, many drivers already written and accepted into the
| Linux kernel tree, and many more being currently developed. The main problem
| is a lack of projects. It turns out that there really isn't much hardware
| that Linux doesn't already support. Almost all new hardware produced is
| coming with a Linux driver already written by the company, or by the
| community with help from the company.
`----
http://lwn.net/Articles/276973/
Related:
Linux device driver project needs more unsupported devices to work on!
,----[ Quote ]
| The problem is that even though Kroah-Hartman and his developers are willing
| to sign NDAs (nondisclosure agreements) for companies that are reluctant to
| open up their devices to open source, businesses are still hanging
| back. "What we need now is more companies participating in the project,"
| Kroah-Hartman said.
|
| [...]
|
| He also wondered if the problem of Linux device drivers has been
| overstated...
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http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS6669895837.html
Avoid Linux device support issues: A few minutes of research can make all the
difference
,----[ Quote ]
| You may have heard stories of Linux not being able to support some critical
| pieces of hardware, such as 3D graphics cards or WiFi. While Linux actually
| supports more hardware than any other operating system out there, it is
| certainly annoying when the one piece of hardware you need is not on the
| list.
`----
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/4358
Linux: Stable API vs. Not?
,----[ Quote ]
| As Linux supports a larger number of different devices "out of the box" than
| any other operating system, and it supports these devices on more different
| processor architectures than any other operating system, this proven type of
| development model must be doing something right :)
`----
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2007/12/linux_stable_api_vs_not.php
A Vista vs. Linux Matchup
,----[ Quote ]
| Putting aside Apple hardware, where all the software works with
| all the hardware so long as it's all up to the minute, I found
| that MEPIS actually has better hardware support for this PC
| than Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Adding insult to injury, since DRM protection schemes must
| evolve constantly, to stay ahead of hackers tearing them down,
| I have little doubt that one day you'll come home to find that
| a Vista update to DRM-protection has just locked you out of your
| media collection. You know, the same collection, which had
| worked just fine the day before. Repeat after me: DRM does
| not belong in operating systems.
`----
http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT9325931427.html
Free Linux Driver Development!
,----[ Quote ]
| Yes, that's right, the Linux kernel community is offering all
| companies free Linux driver development. No longer do you have
| to suffer through all of the different examples in the Linux
| Device Driver Kit, or pick through the thousands of example
| drivers in the Linux kernel source tree trying to determine
| which one is the closest to what you need to do.
`----
http://www.kroah.com/log/2007/01/29/#free_drivers
Linux Hardware Support
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's the problem with that argument: Most hardware does not
| work "Out of the box" in Windows. When people say their hardware
| worked "Out of the box" I don't think they are talking about "Out
| of the blue Windows XP box." What I think they mean is "Out of
| the Dell box."
|
| [...]
|
| The catch is that you must buy hardware that is supported by the
| software you intend to run on it. Is this really so unreasonable?
| Would you buy a Sun Spark workstation and try to run Windows on it?
`----
http://www.jeeperscats.com/?p=7
Newspaper: Window Vista can clear out a medicine cabinet
,----[ Quote ]
| But Michelle’s new HP desktop computer won’t recognize it – a printer made by
| the same company. Indeed, Vista will not recognize it, other than to say it
| doesn’t work with Vista. HP’s website says a new Vista driver (the software
| that tells the computer how to use specific hardware) is in the works, but
| nearly a year since the launch of Vista, I doubt it will ever come out.
`----
http://vistasucks.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/newspaper-window-vista-can-clear-out-a-medicine-cabinet/#more-756
HP all-in-one device works great with Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Once the ink cartridges have been installed and aligned --
| the unit first prints an alignment page, then scans it to
| check for needed adjustment -- Windows and Mac OS users are
| told to load their respective CDs to install the drivers.
| Linux users can scoff at the intellectual property
| handcuffs imposed on their non-free brothers and sisters
| and simply configure the unit from the friendly confines of their
| distribution.
`----
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/03/203206
The Epson Stylus C88 Printer, works in Linux but not in Windows?
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| Now, I'm confused. I installed Ubuntu on a spare machine
| because my printer started printing all wrong. I just
| completed sharing it with CUPS and Samba and what happens?
| It still prints all wrong from Windows!
|
| [...]
|
| Just so you know, I did go back and install the drivers that
| came on the CD-ROM, same problem. I then downloaded the most
| recent drivers from Epson, same problem.
`----
http://hmtk.com/blog/index.php?/archives/82-The-Epson-Stylus-C88-Printer,-works-in-Linux-but-not-in-Windows.html